*This is the fifth in a series of blog posts published as part of the author’s ongoing research.
Cevdet Bulut | PhD Candidate | School of Business Management, Royal Holloway, University of London
A remote corner of Sardinia, far from the typical tech hubs, lies an unexpected setting for a tech company. Surrounded by quiet farms and coastal breezes, Primo Principio was founded not to chase markets, but to fulfil a vision.
Federico Longobardi, co-founder and CTO of Primo Principio, reflects on their beginnings with a sense of nostalgia and humility. “We didn’t choose this place because of its strategic location,” he admits. “We chose it because it was quiet, far from the hustle, surrounded by farmers who mirrored our simple but ambitious ideals.” Federico, originally from Torino, was part of a group of engineers and friends who first came together under the banner of “Engineering Without Borders”.
Their journey began over a decade ago, under the name Secondo Principio, a cooperative that later evolved into Primo Principio. Initially, they weren’t an IoT company—they weren’t even a typical IT company. They were a group of researchers and dreamers, eager to develop solutions for agriculture. “At that time, we had no idea about DSS, prediction models, or AI,” Federico recalls. “We were just focused on our engineering competencies in telecommunications, trying to create something meaningful.”
Despite the odds, Primo Principio has achieved its mission, creating jobs in the agri-tech sector and allowing its team to grow and pursue their passions. Today, the company remains small, with a turnover of less than one million euros and a team of just eight people. They cover the entire product development process in-house, from hardware production to software development.
Based in Alghero, Sardinia, with additional offices in Trieste and Torino, the company offers IoT-based solutions predominantly tailored to small and medium-sized farms, providing services ranging from irrigation management to disease and pest detection.
The company’s true strength, however, lies in its in-house development of highly specialised models designed for specific crops, with a particular focus on combating diseases such as powdery mildew and downy mildew. This capability is the result of extensive, multi-year research projects that have enabled the company to refine its models with exceptional precision. Their commitment to continuous research and development underscores their dedication to staying at the forefront of model innovation, making their models not just a product, but a core component of their business and a key differentiator in the market.
One of the key challenges Primo Principio faces is the slow adoption rate of IoT technologies among farmers. According to Andrea Galante, co-founder and Head of Business Development at Primo Principio, many farmers are still reluctant to fully trust these technologies, partly due to the complexity of agriculture and the variability of conditions such as soil type, microclimates, and plant genetics. Moreover, the added value of IoT is not always immediately evident to farmers, especially when it requires them to change long-standing practices.
The company’s business model is tailored to the average Italian farmer, who, as Federico describes, “does not have a degree, and typically owns about three hectares of land. You have to imagine an older person with an old tractor, not using any kind of technology.” This underlines the unique challenges of Italian agriculture, where farms are often small, fragmented, and managed by ageing farmers.
Their go-to-market strategy is clever. Primo Principio relies heavily on a network of agronomists across Italy, whom they train to be completely independent in using their technology. These agronomists then recommend the solutions to their clients, leveraging the trust they’ve already built. “Farmers trust consortia, their neighbours, and the agronomist. The idea is to reach the agronomist,” says Nicole Salvatori, Head of R&D at Primo Principio, describing their primary marketing channel. “I believe the chain of trust is more important, because without that you cannot build a chain of value. It is foundational,” says Nicole, emphasising that the chain of trust is crucial for the successful adoption of IoT in agriculture. Without trust, the chain of value cannot be established. Building relationships with farmers, addressing their concerns, and providing reliable data are essential for fostering this trust.
The company’s growth, while steady, has been slower than that of larger competitors, partly because they choose to focus on close customer relationships rather than rapid scaling. This strategy is reflected in their diverse customer base, which includes individual farmers, agronomists, and even universities, all benefiting from the partnerships with Primo Principio.
Despite these challenges, Primo Principio is optimistic about the future. The company is entering a new phase of growth, driven by increasing market awareness and supportive government policies. The European Union has been a significant catalyst for the adoption of IoT technologies, offering financial incentives that make it easier for farmers to invest in these systems. Federico notes, “Without these incentives, the market for Smart Agriculture in Italy would be much smaller.” However, he criticizes the current approach as “completely random,” highlighting the need for more coordinated efforts.
When discussing the potential of complementary technologies such as blockchain and satellite technologies, Federico is sceptical. He dismisses much of the hype around these technologies as “rumours,” arguing that many of these solutions are either not yet practical or are unsustainable in their current form. He also casts doubt on the effectiveness of farm-to-fork initiatives, labelling them as mere “greenwashing” efforts. Federico believes that genuine transparency in the food supply chain is hampered by deep-rooted issues, such as unethical labour practices, that technology alone cannot solve. “It’s not the technology solution that is missing for the transparency,” he says.
The future of IoT in agriculture is promising, but Nicole concludes with a cautionary note: there is a potential risk of widening the digital divide and fostering more monopolies, risks that could be accelerated by the use of IoT in agriculture. She points to broader societal challenges that must be addressed alongside technological advancements.
About
This is a series of blogs curated by PhD candidate Cevdet Bulut, who is investigating the adoption of IoT in agriculture. In this series, the author shares a limited version of his field notes and highlights from multiple case studies in a news story format as part of his current research study. The scope of the case studies is to uncover what factors (socio-economic, cultural, technical, etc.) affect the adoption of IoT and to gain experience from the field that can guide the design of viable IoT-based business models for the sector. A new blog will be published on each case study with the participant’s permission.
Blogs in this series: